Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tapauá (Agenzia Fides) – From 2006, when a group of lay Catholics in the city of Tapauà attended a meeting of missionary activities at the headquarters of the mission in Labrea, the parish of Santa Rita de Tapau decided to make a concrete gesture to encourage the missionary dimension of the parish and to help those in need. At the meeting of the parish pastoral care council the proposal was passed that everything collected in the “missionary fair” would go to help the mission of the Augustinian mission in Kamabai, Sierra Leone. The proposal was approved unanimously. For many from Tapauá the name “Sierra Leone” seemed curious and even asked where this place was.
According to the testimony sent to Fides by the Augustinian Recollects, the missionary show for this year occurred in late October, the month of missions: the food and other foodstuffs were collected before being sold on the streets. The day of celebration and solidarity, which ended at midnight, also saw the commitment of the religious, Julio César Hernández, Augustine, and his sister Dora, Oblate religious, who have shown a montage about the missionary fairs of previous years and about the mission in Kamabai that the Augustinians have in Sierra Leone.
“The generosity of Tapauà is very grand and the missionary spirit does not rest – stated the note issued to Fides. That day they were 2,906 reales, that is € 1240: six months' salary of the average worker in Tapauà.
Tapauà is located in the forest of Brazil, can be reached only by boat or plane, because there is no way of communication on the ground. It is a town of about 10,000 inhabitants, at the head of a municipality which covers 90,000 square kilometres (more or less like Portugal) and a total of 20,000 inhabitants, half of whom live in small villages scattered in the jungle.
In Kamabai, Sierra Leone, 90% of development projects are carried out by the Mission of the Augustinian Recollects: scholarships, teacher training, schools, drinking water wells, extraordinary health care, professional training, etc. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 24/11/2010)
